University of Virginia Library

PREFACE.

In 1620 the first African slaves were brought to
Virginia. In 1820 the first emancipated Africans
were sent from the United States to Liberia.

If a superior intelligence, while contemplating,
from the serene heights of the mansions of the
blessed, the movements, the tumults, and the aimless
activity of the inhabitants of the earth, had observed
that one little ship taking its solitary way
across the ocean, laden with emigrants returning,
civilized and Christianized, to the land which, two
centuries previous, their fathers had left degraded
and idolatrous savages, would he not have thought
that, of all the enterprises then absorbing the energies
and hopes of man, this, regarded by so large a
portion of the few who were cognizant of it as a
wild and hopeless venture, was the one which promised
to the human race the largest portion of ultimate

good? And who can doubt that, in thus providing
a home of refuge for “the stranger within
her gates,” our beloved Union was nobly, though silently,
justifying herself from the aspersions of oppression
and wrong so often thrown out against her?

What other nation can point to a colony planted
from such pure motives of charity; nurtured by
the counsels and exertions of its noblest, wisest, and
most self-denying statesmen and philanthropists;
and sustained, from its feeble commencement up to
a period of self-reliance and independence, from a
pure love of justice and humanity?

The aim of this little book, imperfectly as it has
been carried out, is to show the advantages Liberia
offers to the African, who among us has no home,
no position, and no future. These advantages have
not been exaggerated. The endeavor has been to
present the unvarnished reality; to be as exact and
accurate as possible, and rather to err by keeping
within than going beyond the bounds of truth.

For the few incidents in the history of Liberia
that are mentioned, the writer is principally indebted
to the author of “The New Republic;” the
little memoir of Lott Cary is taken from “A Plea
for Africa;” the accounts of the productions and
climate of Liberia are derived from the most authentic
sources.